A New Year's Resolution

Over the past few days, I've spent time reading and listening to news accounts about the issues and needs in the US over the past decade, 2010 and the coming year and years. Several things I found humorous, several disheartening, some uplifting and overall they gave me an idea about a resolution for the new year. I'm not a New Year's resolution person but I think this one is worthwhile.

One that I found humorous was an article in the January 1, New York Times. On the front page one of the first baby boomers to reach 65 was highlighted. The writer took well deserved jabs at Baby Boomers. As I read the article, I chuckled because it was exactly what Lance Morrow an editorial writer for Time magazine, wrote 25 years ago about the self absorbed, entitled feeling, whining Baby Boomers. According to the New York Times writer it still holds true. Morrow, a greatest generation member and the New York Times writer, a millennium, book end us, the Baby Boomers and both wrote with disdain. We baby boomers started off well, we wanted to change the world for the good, but we got hoodwinked in the 1980's...greed became good, we tasted and never looked back.

The uplifting was the heart that average Americans showed through our wallets to help those suffering in Haiti. So much was done wrong because of bickering between agencies and ineptitude of the Haitian government, but American's always knowing that we must help those in need, poured forth monetary help and many who could, went to the front lines and assisted.

The list of disheartening was unfortunately very long. The BP oil spill and all the cost cutting measures that led to the disaster and the haughtiness of the BP CEO were unbearable. The news crews have left and at the end of the year, I'm wondering how our fellow Americans are faring. The mid term elections were foretold but that didn't make it any easier to swallow. OK, this is where my political bias comes in. I find it difficult to understand that with only two years under the influence of Democratic rule, Americans were ready for a change. Perhaps it's difficult for me to grasp because I felt I was in the wilderness for eight years. American wages have stagnated and actually declined in the past decade. I know what I'm talking about.

In 1976, I was able to buy a small Cape Cod house, had two new cars, a house full of new furniture and had a combined income of $18,000. Even taking into account inflation, you can't say things are equitable today. The first day of my first job in August of 1975, the payroll person told me I was working one day for the government and four for me. Now it's 2.5 for the government and 2.5 for me. And let me remind folks that in all my working career it's been Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama. That is four Republicans to two Democrats. I remember the last words of the 1980 Presidential Campaign. Reagan stood before the American public and asked one question. "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" With that he won by a landslide the next day.
Looking long term over the past 10 years, are we better off? Now I know my Republican sisters could enlighten me about why the change in Washington and St. Paul are beneficial and may save us from dropping into the drink. The one thing I think we can agree upon is having our representatives not glare across the aisle, but look across the aisle and see a partner in governing and problem solving for the betterment of all.

This leads me to my New Year's Resolution. With the changing of the guard at both the Minnesota state capitol and House of Representatives in Washington, I will email my State and US Congressmen and Congresswoman once a month. My question will be targeted at the issue with one constant question. "What are you doing to cross the aisle and work to solve our problems?". I won't accept an answer about what the "other side" is doing wrong, or how if it weren't for the Tea Party or the liberal left. I will demand to know how my representative in government is finding common ground. Now I have no control over their response, if I receive anything coherent, but it will be my duty to ask...my resolution to question and prod. But I do have to keep in mind the great line from Gone with the Wind. Scarlett and Pork are engaged in a conversation about the taxed on Tara. Scarlett exclaims she is going to ask Ashley for the money. Pork states he doesn't have that kind of money. Scarlett replies she can ask if she wants to and storms out. To which Pork says with a heavy sigh, "Askin' ain't gettin." No it is not, but I'm going to ask anyway.